Stories of a Protective Mother

There was a story I was told that my mother was at the store with my older brother who was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when he was about 2 years old. He must have been about 3, wearing a hearing device in both ears. I was told that Mom was in the check out line when a women ahead of them turned to her little girl and said ” look, that little boy is dumb”. My mother turned on that woman and told her straight, ” my son is deaf NOT dumb” . This promptly shut the woman up. My mother was very protective.

Mom loved us each differently. She had 8 years to build relationships with my brothers until I was born. She and I only had 5 years together. I remember when my older brother was hit by a car who was not looking as they pulled into a parking lot of some sort. He did not hear the car. Unfortunately, my mother must have been drinking because she did not find out until the next morning. My brother had made the front page, well his foot did. My mother cried at the picture of her son on a stretcher going into an ambulance. I was young, about 5. I cried too just because she was crying. I can now understand why she was crying. It was heart break and shame. She was not there to protect her son. She loved him so much and could not do the one thing she was good at which was to help prevent him from getting hurt.

I just pray that my brother knows how much mom loved him, my other brother, and me. I know she had gotten to a bad place where alcohol “ruled” her body, but the real mom, loved us so much she was willing to try to be a secretary, which was way below abilities of an electrical engineer.